In some cases you may decide to use a game as part of your presentation. Using a game, for example in the form a quiz, can help in maintaining the interest of your audience and let them use the content of your presentation in a playful manner. This may also assist in having your audience remember the content better after your presentation.
We will describe one example of a game that you can use in detail. This game works when your audience is not too large (i.e. around 20 persons). It can be used when the first part of your presentation mainly consist of you delivering content. A game is used in the second part of your presentation to make your audience think about and play with the content as you delivered before (or things that your audience is already supposed to know).
- Tell your audience that we are going to do a quiz to see how well they know the topic.
- Divide your audience in teams (around 4 persons per team).
- Explain that one team will get a question and one and a half minute to come up with an answer. If the answer is correct the team will get one point. If not correct the next team will get a chance to answer the question or supplement the answer (partial points 0,25 or 0,5) can also be given.
- The best team will win a price (arrange for some small prizes that are gift rapped, so it is not obvious what it is). Show the prizes to the audience.
- Ask every team to come up with a name for their team and use a flip-over chart to keep track of the points. It is probably best to facilitate this quiz with one or two other persons so you have a quiz-master, someone who can keep track of the points and you have a jury.
- Show a presentation slide with the sequential numbers of the questions. If you have 20 questions the slide will show the numbers 1 to 20. Make sure that there are an equal number of questions available for each team.
- Ask the first team to pick a number.
- Click on the number selected to show the question on the projector screen so all teams can read the question. Limit the time for a team to come up with an answer to for example one and a half minute.
- Go to the next team to ask if they agree with the answer or have something to add to the answer. If you got the answer give the team(s) points.
- Move to the second team for them to select a number and repeat the process.
- You may have one of the question to show a positive smiley and indicate that the team will immediately get one point. This team is lucky and will get one point without answering a question. Then you move to the next team. You may also have one of the questions to show a negative smiley and indicate that this team doesn’t get a chance to win a point.
- You may add a second part of the quiz. When you do this you should tell your audience at the beginning that the quiz will consist of two parts but not already explaining the second part of the quiz.
- When you get to the second part of the quiz you should add the points per team and multiply the points with one thousand. Tell the teams that they can use these points to win the game. If a team had no points you may want to give them a basic level of points so they can also participate in the game.
- Show a new slide that includes a list of topics that you covered in your presentation. Tell your audience that you will start with the first topic and the teams can bid how much points they want to bet to answer the underlying question. If the team gets the answer correct the points at stake will be added from their total points and if the answer is wrong the points will be deducted. A team cannot bet for more points that they have. So if a team has 3000 points they can maximum bet for 3000 points. If a team goes “all-in” and wants to see and answer the question putting all their points at stake they will have priority to answer the question.
- Hold an auction for the first topic, letting the teams offer points to answer the question. Start for example with 500 points and raise by 500 each time to see who is offering more points to answer the question.
- Let the team who offered most points answer the question. Click on the topic and show the question for the team and the others to read. Limit the time to come up with an answer to for example 2 minutes. Judge the answer.
- Update the flip-over chart to keep track of the points. If a team goes “all-in”, see if they got the answer partially right to avoid a team loses all their points and get out of the game (and therefore have no more interest in participating).
- After the last topic is covered you can see how the winner is for the price.
- Have fun during the game
As you may understand the quiz game as explained above will take time to prepare and execute. You can alter the format to suit your presentation objectives. In practice you will see that it creates a fun way of covering certain topics and let your audience get engaged and dive into the topic.
Based on the answers to the questions you may want to add some further insights and perspectives to share with your audience. Playing a game with your audience may be a great way to keep them engaged and create a memorable experience.
